I've been looking for a chocolate hazelnut cake recipe (from scratch) and came across this one for cupcakes. When I baked them they were all nice and pretty rising. Then they started to pop and let air out and sink. I don't know if something is wrong with the recipe or what. I did exactly everything it said. I've NEVER had a cake do this to me. Bought new baking soda thinking that was just old and same thing happened. If someone can help I'd really appreciate it. Even if you know a great recipe for cake for this I would appreciate that too!! Thanks.

Melissa

P.S. This was the recipe used.

http://sweetopia.net/2011/08/chocolate-hazelnut-cupcake-recipe-and-hedgehog-toppers/

I'm doing this from work and haven't calculated anything out, but it does look like quite a lot of leavening for the amount of dry ingredients in this recipe.

I'm sure someone else will have another answer, but this could very well be the problem.

Her pictures don't look like they domed much, and she said she filled them, so maybe her's come out the same way?

I have this in the oven right now and it is baking up beautifully. Not sure why it would collapse on you, but perhaps it's an over filling issue? I filled 2 8" cake pans to just a hair under 1/2 full and they baked up to the top of the pan line, so I would imagine if you filled it to 2/3's full like it says in the recipe it would go right over.

I just pulled them out and they did settle a little, but no craters or anything. I wish I knew why it didn't work for you.

It's not a bad tasting cake... not very pronounced in the hazelnut flavor, but addng the Nutella woud fix that.

Honestly... if you just bake your normal chocolate cake and fill it with Nutella you'd have a really nice tasting chocolate hazelnut cake.

Here is a picture...

and the top view

I leveled out all my ingredients just perfect. Made sure they were room temperature. I filled the cupcakes only half way and they just sunk in. I've never had cupcakes do that. Now you show me a beautiful baked cake with it and I just want to say WTH? lol Now I do have a new oven. Someone mentioned maybe it needs to be calibrated. So I don't know. I've baked a few cakes already and they all baked fine. Thanks for the help. I guess I will try again and check my oven too

Not sure if you can see this one right but this is what they looked like.

I have had that happen to me before. Usually because I took them out too soon, but if they fell in the oven... it may be an over filling issue or your just not used to your new oven. How much batter did you put in the cups? I wouldn't fill them more than 1/2 full. With a batter this wet there is no structure to hold the cake together until it is baked fully and if it spills over even a bit you will get that deflation because the top crust falls to the side and messes it all up. In a cake pan you could put a parchment collar in your pan to assure there is no overflow, but you can't do that with cupcakes.

It's definitely not a recipe that is going to dome up, but it should work as a cupcake.

I just read that you filled them 1/2 way. I'd try a little less if you want to try this recipe again. It's a good cake... nice and moist and light... but if it's giving you hell I'd just try something else. Do you have a chocolate recipe you love? You could sub out some flour and replace it with the hazelnut flour and get the same results. The flavor isn't very strong, and I think spraying your leveled layers with some Frangelico would give you more of what you are looking for.

Thought about something. What about the ground hazelnut it asked for? I took chopped hazelnuts and grounded them in a food processor. Would that make a difference on if they should be like powder or minced looking??

I did pretty much the same thing. I started with whole nuts and put them in my spice grinder (didn't want to break out the bigger processor). I put the processed nuts through a fine mesh collander and reground the bigger pieces, but having a few larger pieces shouldn't hurt it at all. Maybe if they were really large it might effect the structure of the cake. The hazelnut flour would be part of what holds the cake up and if that were too coarsely ground, then yes... I think it would weaken the batter to the point it might collapse.

Basically the same process for grinding up nut flour for making mcarons. In the comments below someone had asked about how fine to grind and she had answered very finely ground so that's what I did.

OK thanks. I'm wondering if I didn't do that wrong. I put them in my food processor (forgetting I had a smaller one) and then added them still kind of chopped and not more grounded. I went back to the store yesterday and got some more vanilla and looked for hazelnut flour but didn't see any. No worries though. Found another recipe for just chocolate cake, substituted the vanilla for hazelnut extract and then chopped up hazelnuts (this time in my smaller chopper) and added. Came out moist, rose up and everything! My son came home and ate the last few that were left they were so good. Thanks so much for your help! I've appreciated it!

Melissa

No problem at all.